India Olympic contingent’s chief physician Dinshaw Pardiwala has revealed that wrestler Vinesh Phogat’s weight had increased post her participation in the semi-final bout.
The increased weight led to Vinesh’s disqualification from the gold medal bout of 50kg freestyle wrestling at the ongoing Paris Olympics 2024 on Wednesday (Aug 7).
“The process of weight cut prior to the weight in the morning involves a calculated restriction of food and water. And besides this, the athlete needs to sweat and that sweating is done with sauna and with exercise,” said Dr Pardiwala in a video statement provided by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA).
“Now this weight cut has the benefit of putting you into a lighter weight category, but does cause weakness and energy depletion, and this is counterproductive to participation.”
“So most wrestlers will thereafter go in for some amount of energy restoration with limited water and high energy foods. And these are usually given after the way in the calculation from the nutritionist, which is done is athlete specific. And Vinesh’s nutritionist felt that the usual amount that she takes is about 1.5 kg total over the day, which gives enough energy for the bouts.
“Sometimes there’s also a factor of a rebound weight gain following competition now, Vinesh had three bouts and hence to prevent any dehydration, some amount of water had to be given.”
“We found that her post participation weight was increased more than normal and the coach initiated the normal process of weight cut that he has always employed with Vinesh.”
“This is something that’s worked with her for a long period of time. He felt confident that this would be achieved and over the night we went ahead with the weight cut procedure.”
“However, in the morning we found that despite all of our efforts, her weight was 100 grammes over her 50 kilogramme weight category and hence she was disqualified. We have tried all possible drastic measures throughout the night, including cutting off her hair, shortening her clothes. And despite all of this, we could not make that 50 kg weight category,” concluded Pardiwala.
Vinesh will now return from the Olympics empty-handed instead of what could have been a historic medal for an Indian women wrestler.